You Got Your “Chocolate TCM” in My “Lean Six Sigma Peanut Butter”! A tasty metaphor to show you how to manage IBM FileNet content to help your company reduce waste.
By Robert Kakos, Client Support Manager
Do you remember the comical collision of characters in the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup commercials? Each holding their favorite treat (one chocolate and the other peanut butter), the two collide and give rise to the catchy line, “Two great tastes that taste great together.” Mmmm…I bet your mind tastes it now.
The memorable commercial is a popular metaphor in business, science, diplomacy, and many other topics of strategy, speed, and standing. The power of blending independently-successful disciplines into a more impactful strategy is a creamy-buttercup-of-a-win.
Pyramid eXpeditor Worksheets
For example, the fusion of Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma produced Lean Six Sigma. Lean Six Sigma delivers greater results than what would typically be achieved by Lean or Six Sigma individually. Organizations that combine these methods improve their speed, quality, and process effectiveness. This, in turn, reduces costs and increases revenue for the business.
The same is true in the world of enterprise content management (ECM). Let me explain my hungry reader. The chocolate is your Transactional Content Management (TCM) system and the peanut butter is the Lean Six Sigma method. The byproduct, the buttercup, is Worksheets – a delicious morsel-of-a-plug-in aimed at empowering business end-users to make smarter, faster, and better decisions.
Manage IBM FileNet Content with Worksheets
Worksheets is part of a greater IBM FileNet case management solution and therefore helps manage IBM FileNet content. It provides users with a single reference point for all the steps and documentation necessary to complete any task within a process. Worksheets groups prescribed checks, tasks, actions, and internal comments so users do not overlook any vital step.
This improves the speed of decision making, increases collaboration, and reduces waste. Waste like user distractions, interruptions, errors, misinformation, delays, lessons not learned, decisions or actions based on incorrect information, decisions not made or forgotten to be made, or independent judgments made without knowledgeable insights, all of which harm quality and upset your customers. Most business process waste falls into one of the three categories:
- Lack of focus
- Ignorance
- Ineptitude
For the sake of practicality, let’s set aside matters outside of our control.
1) Lack of Focus
The first reason for failure is a lack of focus. Multitasking is both a blessing and a curse. Our ability to stay focused on an intellectual or creative piece of work is a major challenge in the modern professional environment. The dangers are plentiful and well documented. Unfortunately, the professional environment is just that – an environment of competing priorities and shifting tasks in dwindling times.
How Worksheets turn the trash into treasure:
If only we had a tool to help us easily and effectively track work tasks. A tool that quickly provides the information we need. A tool that allows us to collaborate and delegate tasks to others. A tool that tracks our progress so when we need to shift our priorities, we can quickly return to where we left off without missing a beat.
2) Ignorance
The second is ignorance – we simply do not know what to do. Predictable decisions are easy to automate. Businesses can quantify and act on them quickly and can delegate those decisions to machines or the lower-skilled workforce. The lost and ignorant need guidance in finding answers to make prudent decisions.
How Worksheets turn the trash into treasure:
If only we had a tool to guide us in making good decisions. A tool that asks us questions. A tool to help us uncover the information needed to make great decisions. A tool that reminds us of the information that is critical to making great decisions.
3) Ineptitude
The third reason is ineptitude – applying our knowledge inconsistently and incorrectly. In medicine, engineering, and many other professions, humanity has made great advances in solving ignorance. Unfortunately, ineptitude remains a serious problem. Despite the best training, certification programs, and specialization, highly capable professionals continue to make costly mistakes.
How Worksheets turn the trash into treasure:
If only we had a tool to guide us in using our existing knowledge correctly. A tool that focuses us, knows what to do, and directs us in applying what we do know consistently and correctly.
That is exactly what Pyramid eXpeditor Worksheets does for the TCM business professional. It truly helps manage IBM FileNet content while keeping you focused, guiding you in gaining the correct information, and ensuring you apply your knowledge properly.
By combining the successfully-proven principles of TCM and Lean Six Sigma, Pyramid Solutions created a new software tool to help TCM workers operate smarter, faster, and better. For the organization, PX Worksheets improves your competitive edge and increases the likelihood of raising revenues and reducing costs.
About the Author: Robert is a successful serial entrepreneur with over two decades of proven experience and achievements in business and technology. Robert uses technology that creates strategic and competitive advantages so businesses can grow, improve operational efficiency, and reduce risk and cost. For summer fun, Robert enjoys gardening, adventure traveling, and creating family memories.